Rocks and salt

Views: 237 - Rating: 4.88 /5 ( 8 votes cast) - Comments: 0 Thank you for rating! You have already rated this page, you can only rate it once! Your rating has been changed, thanks for rating! - Title Salt marsh, Kazakhstan Released 11/04/2014 10:00 am Copyright KARI/ESA Description - This satellite image was acquired over the edge of a salt marsh near the northeast Caspian Sea in southwestern Kazakhstan. The Caspian Sea (not pictured) is the largest inland body of water by surface area. With an average depth of about 5 m, the northern part of the Caspian is very shallow, while the central and southern parts of the sea are much deeper. The salinity of the waters also change from north to south, being more saline in the northern, shallow waters and and less in the south. The salt marsh in the upper section of this image was once a gulf of the Caspian Sea, but fluctuating sea levels over the last decades cause it to be cut off occasionally from the main body of water and even dry up. In this image, it appears that the water has evaporated, leaving behind a white salt crust. Rock formations dominate the central part of the image, while a plateau stretches south and east (not pictured).